Sydney gets taxi boost with 500 more cabs

THE number of taxis on Sydney’s streets will be boosted by almost 500 in a bid reduce weekend wait times and cut fares.

Henry Budd

DailyTelegraphDecember 10, 20121:27pm

THE number of taxis on Sydney's streets will be boosted by almost 500 in a bid reduce weekend wait times and cut fares.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has recommended an additional 205 unrestricted taxi licences and 280 peak availability licences, which can only be used between 12pm and 5am, be issued from July next year.

The recommendations will be welcome news for Christmas revellers left standing at empty cab ranks after a night out.

IPART Chairman Peter Boxall said the new licences improve services, and reduce costs for operators and drivers.

“Increasing the number of taxis, particularly during underserviced Friday and Saturday night-shifts, will reduce waiting times leading to more taxi trips, higher taxi occupancy and improved hourly earnings for drivers,” Mr Boxall said.

“We estimate that, at current fares, our draft recommendations will cut waiting times on Friday and Saturday nights by an average of 7 per cent, increase the number of taxi trips taken in Sydney by about 6% and increase the distance travelled by paying passengers by around 3 million kilometres a year.”

The new licences are expected to reduce the amount operators need to pay to buy or lease a taxi licence, the cost of which accounts for about 20 per cent of the every taxi fare in Sydney.

“We think that the estimated impact on taxi licence owners of a 10 per cent reduction in income from leasing licences is a reasonable trade-off for improvements in the industry,” Mr Boxall said.